"There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line."
Oscar Levant

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Are Obamacare Numbers About Government Competence?

For John, BLUF: If we can't do a national health care system, are we competent enough to deal with Russia over Ukraine? Nothing to see here; just move along.

Here is Commentator Michael Barone asking, "Hispanics souring on Obamacare -- and Democrats too?" Well, not really moving somewhere else politically, so maybe just not bothering at the State and National levels. No one believes the majority of Hispanics will move to some other party.

Will Hispanics remain a heavily Democratic voting bloc? Maybe not. The 2008 electoral exit poll showed them breaking 67 to 30 percent for Barack Obama (despite John McCain's support of comprehensive immigration legislation) and the 2012 exit poll showed them breaking 71 to 27 percent for Obama (making them one of the few demographic groups whose support for Obama increased rather than decreased between 2008 and 2012).

But Obamcare may be costing the president and his party support among Hispanics. Sharp-eyed analyst Rebecca Kaplan at CBS News notes that the latest Pew Research Center poll on the Affordable Care Act shows 47 percent of Hispanics approving of it and 47 percent disapproving. As the Pew analysts note, this is a huge drop: 61 percent of Hispanics approved of Obamacare in September 2013. Obamacare, after all, was sold as a program that would help the uninsured, and a significantly higher than average percentage of Hispanics don't have health insurance.

The numbers never lie, although they may be confusing. Here is Mr Barone's take:

I think that Obamacare may be discrediting Big Government generally among Hispanic voters. They may have assumed that government in the United States was competent and functional. They have been finding out that Obamacare has been about as competent and functional as government in Mexico.

Doesn't mean they will voted for the dreaded Republicans, who they may associate with the oligarchs in Mexico.